Introduction / Mid Lane Guide

Hey there, I am Malkavian and this is my Mid Lane Malzahar Guide. Malzahar is reworked as you all know in patch 6.9 and this is a guide for new Malzahar. Here is a gameplay video about Reworked Malzahar. Please watch it so you can use how to use which skills first.

Malzahar Full Gameplay Season 6

Mid Lane is the most important lane of the game. Most of the teamfights starts in mid lane since it is close to bot lane and top lane equally and closest lane to both jungles. Also mid lane is equally close to Baron and Dragon so it makes this lane and mid lane turret important.

As a mid laner you should know that defending your first mid lane turret is the most important thing and while doing that if you can manage to force the enemy mid lane turret that is the best thing you can do. Some champions have equipment for safe farm/push strategy but some of them don't.

With assasin type champions you cant focus on forcing your enemy turret so instead you have to farm lane try to keep defending your turret and you should roam whenever your opponent leaves the lane. In that small window try to gank top/bot but you need to be fast about it since you need to turn back lane before your enemy push lane more than 2x waves.

Turret Pusher / Farmers:

For example with Morgana and Malzahar you can clear mobs very fast which allows you to damage enemy turret. In most games while playing Malzahar and Morgana I take down enemy turret in early game which gives our jungler and laners comfort on stealing enemy jungle mobs. Also if you are ahead on kills it makes your enemies safe farm more than ever. So you can increase the farm gap between you and your opponent.

Ultimate mid laners:

Some mid laners are good even if you dont farm at all. You just have to wait for level 6 and play defensive with that kind of champions. Most of this champions focus on early kills since their difference is their superb ultimates. Akali,Syndra,Talon,Zed etc. This champions will try to use their ultimates on lane or in bot/top ganks whenever they have cooldown.

Things that you should care about:

-Wards! Always use pink ward on 1 side of the river and ward the other side constantly. Always buy blue trinket after level 9 so your totems might be permanent when they are not spooted. Also allows you to use totems from a good range. Decreases the CS loss since you dont have to walk.

-Check your minimap constantly. ıf you dont know where enemy jungler is do not push your lane. If you see your opponent in bot lane and if you know you cant be there in time always push the lane and use that opportunity to go shop and buy upgrades.

-Learn item and ward prices and always aim to farm in early game instead of killing your enemy. Kill attemps in early game are risky and it may leave you with %10 hp without summoners which makes you a good target for enemy jungle even if you go base and turn back with full hp.

-Always check your enemies stats. If they have more magic resist than you expected buy penetration items etc. And know when you can deal how much damage. Do not enter useless trades. If you know you are weak on 1v1 trades wait for your jungler and play safe.

-Deal damage to enemy turret whenever you can and ward your bot/top lane whenever you lose sight of your opponent.

-When your Jungle pings for Dragon,Rift Herald and Baron you need to be there and you need to be there without showing that you actually move there. So shove mobs orgo behind your turret and dont be seen!

AP Malzahar Jungle

Before Rework AD Malzahar was able to jungle pretty well. But after rework you dont have to worry about it. AP Malzahar can jungle as good as AD Malzahar. I tried it first time and things you can do with AP Malzahar jungle are amazing.

You can solo Dragon without any items at lvl 3
You can Solo Baron
And you dont even lose hp while you are clearing jungle mobs pretty fast.

Here is a video to show jungle route and solo dragon/baron...

Ranked GamePlay

Runes

Runes are standart runes for most mid laners.

Runes

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration9

Greater Seal of Armor9

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist9

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power3

You can use Hybrid Penetration Runes Aswell. Taht is good for voidlings. They deal ad damage.

Items

Note: I couldn't add the new items to build. I ll update the guide whenever MOBAfire update guide pages.

Nashor's Tooth Is the best item for Malzahar after 6.9 patch. Malzahar gameplay depends on voidlings more than ever now. So as much as you attack you summon more voidlings which makes you op. With this item you can basicly outduel anybody if you cooldowns are available. Rod of Ages is so far the best item for Malzahar. It boosts his farming ability also gives him tankiness. After building Roa if you are ahead you should build Rabaddon if not you can go for Liandry etc. More hp and more penetration is good if you are not ahead.

Skill Sequence

Dont forget that your ultimate only deals %damage now so you need voidlings your auto attack or your (Q) to finish up your targets.

Malzahar Update and Spell Changes

Malzahar faces a constant dilemma: never use his abilities in lane or push constantly. This playstyle causes Malzahar to be very binary and non interactive; either he has enough AP to drop his spells on a wave and leave lane or he slowly pushes out, leaving him exposed to constant ganks. As well, the nature of his ultimate - cancelable by any CC - makes Malzahar’s power curve binary by necessity: you either stop his channel or somebody dies.

In both cases, what Malzahar needs is leeway; a brief window of protection. Adding that window allows us to dial back on Malzahar’s burst and wave clear while giving him more sustained threat in a larger fight. Malz’s actions shouldn’t feel inevitable, but at least he’ll feel less bad about trying to make plays.

He’ll still be the consistently damaging voidling master, but he should feel better about brawling near the frontlines when he brings more sustained cooldowns and a little bit of protection.

UPDATEDPassive - Void ShiftMalzahar skirts the line between dimensions, activating Void Shift after avoiding direct damage for a period of time. During Void Shift, Malzahar takes heavily reduced damage and is immune to crowd control. Malzahar loses Void Shift 1 second after taking damage from a non-minion source or blocking a crowd control effect.

UPDATED W - Void Swarm
Summons a Voidling. The first time a Voidling attacks a champion, large monster, or epic monster, or assists in killing a unit, Malzahar spawns a new Voidling with the same remaining duration. When 3 or more Voidlings are active, they each gain 50% attack speed.

R - Nether Grasp
Malzahar suppresses a target champion for 2.5 seconds and creates a zone of negative energy around them that deals damage to all enemies inside for the duration.

NULL ZONE DURATION 5 seconds
DAMAGE 250/360/440 ⇒ 6/8/10% maximum health per second to all targets in the Null Zone
RATIO 1.3 ability power ⇒ 1.5% of the target’s maximum health per 100 ability power, per second
REMOVEDCAST TIME 0.25 seconds ⇒ Removed

Summary

Malzahar was a great on mid laner even before rework and now he has more power. Just play him as you play before and deal damage to enemies. Malzahar great on poking enemies pre level 6 and he is pretty op in 6-10 lvl range. Then he scales bad but he is insane on late game with full build.

Ranked Play

In ranked games your main goal is to push your lane and roam as much as you can. With your (W) + (E) you can push your lane pretty quickly and then you can roam.

Ranked GamePlay

Pros / Cons

Pros:

-Easy to farm with (w) + (e)
-Great Late game and early game damage output
-Has %hp damage which is good vs tanks.
-Has silence and aoe damage.

Team Work

In teamwork your job is to use your ultimate on enemy adc or apc. But if you cant reach them it is fine your ultimate also useful on enemy tanks since it deals %hp damage. Try to use it on a tank who charges to your adc in teamfights and harass enemies with your q w e skills whenever you find time.

Unique Skills

(W) w skill is changed and now spans a voidling. IF this voidling helps killing a mob or enemy it spawns another voidling. Each voidlings have 12 seconds up time. and this skill has around 24 sec cooldown. So use it to farm your lane fast with this skill and roam or harass your enemies.

Farming

Farming is pretty easy with (E) +(W) combo now. You can spawn 3-4 voidlings to help your farm and it is pretty op since if enemies come close you can just ulti them with 3-4 voids up.